Birthday Wishes, Round 2

Make a tea light candle from used birthday candles and keep the magic burning bright!

Small metal saucepan
8-10 used standard birthday candles
Clean old glass jar
One new tea light
Tongs or oven mitt
Old towel
Water
Stove top or hot plate

Put down a towel to cover your work surface. Take each birthday candle and break it up, separating the wax from the wick strings. Keep each color wax in a separate pile if you want to layer the colors, or mix together if you don't care.

For my candle, I decided to make a layer of pink wax, then a layer of blue.

Put all your wax bits into the glass jar, then put the jar into an inch of water in the saucepan. Using medium heat, carefully melt the wax in the jar on the stove. It should only take a couple of minutes.

Carefully remove the tea light candle from its metal cup. Then, pull the wick out from the wax, replacing it back in the cup. Discard the disc of tea light wax unless you have another use for it.

Using the tongs or oven mitt, remove the jar of melted wax from the saucepan and bring it over to the towel you are working on. Pour the melted wax into the metal tea light cup, taking care not to move the wick.

Repeat with additional colors of wax until the candle cup is full.